University students becoming drug couriers

Many university students who travel to the US and Europe during long vacations are now being used as mules by drug lords in the narcotics trafficking business, the Executive Secretary of the Narcotics Control Board has told The Globe newspaper.

Mr Yaw Akrasi-Sarpong said in an exclusive interview that the trend was becoming a source of great worry for anti-narcotics agencies.

According to the NACOB boss, many University students in the country are lured by the drug lords into the narcotics courier business with goodies such as free plane tickets to the US and Europe to undertake “special” holiday programmes.

The students eventually end up becoming couriers of various narcotic substances and many of them get arrested.

Mr. Akrasi-Sarpong told The Globe that the offers made to these students by the drug traffickers are very enticing and difficult to resist, thus the increasing trend.

He explained that: “Sometimes somebody comes and tells you that I have a programme; I will even pay your ticket; there are people who will even give you a package and many times those guys who are involved in that, they give you the ticket and they tell you when you get to London or when you get to the US, take this number, he will come and pick you up. ”

The NACOB boss said often times, the students were neither aware of the content of the packages nor the background of those sent to pick them up at the airports.

Considering the severity of the problem, Mr. Akrasi-Sarpong said engaging students on the dangers of unknowingly getting entrapped in the narcotics trafficking business urgently needed to be undertaken as a campaign.

He expressed worry about the mad rush by students to travel abroad during long vacation periods or for the sole purpose of making a living there.

He said the enticing riches brought back home by students who travel abroad tempt their colleagues to also do same thus making them vulnerable to the manipulations of drug traffickers who lure them with money and sponsorship.

He told The Globe that he gets saddened by the arrest of students who get entrapped in such narcotics webs since their future get shattered while the drug lords who lure them into being couriers rather get away with their crimes.

“Those who are recruiting university students on holidays telling them that oh you can go; they should also go on! Those university students; attempting to leave our shore [with drugs] have been arrested and they have dropped out of school,” Mr. Akrasi-Sarpong warned. In finding a means to curb the emerging trend, Mr. Akrasi-Sarpong said all educational stakeholders must support in developing effective learning and educational tools in schools to get students to also recognise the inherent dangers and potential blow that could be dealt them if they allowed themselves to be used as couriers. He also suggested the need to have compulsory examination questions set on drugs at the basic and senior high levels.

Mr. Akrasi-Sarpong told The Globe that the porous nature of the country’s borders is also making the drug trade thrive for those engaging in it. He admitted that the networks and operations of the drug lords-which he said were well structured and better coordinated locally and internationally-often outwitted anti-narcotics agencies thus frustrating the fight against narcotics in the country and virtually making it a daunting task.

Mr. Akrasi-Sarpong has called for a review of the country’s strategies on fighting the menace saying “we need to look critically at narcotics law enforcement”, suggesting that “we have to look at best practices; we have to structure it like the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration of the US)”.

He stated that creating an autonomous drug fighting institution will be of great help in containing the menace “or making it like the Columbian Narcotic Police where you enter as a constable and you can rise to the top as a deputy IGP”.

Such a structure and institution, according to Mr. Akrasi-Sarpong, will better coordinate the various units under all security agencies fighting drug trafficking and enable the country achieve better results.

The religious NACOB boss revealed to The Globe that some drug lords attempted thwarting his efforts by using black magic to fight him but to no avail. He narrated to The Globe instances where some drug traffickers sent his pictures to Fetish Priests and “Mallams” to render him ineffective.

He attributed the failure of the rituals to God’s protection for him and warned his future successor to rely on God for assistance in fighting the drug menace.

Mr. Sarpong was however hopeful that with proper strategies and better coordination among the various law enforcement agencies, Ghana will make significant successes in fighting drug trafficking.